FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions About Working with Groupon
Groupon is designed to be easy for merchants like you to gain new customers and increase brand awareness. In the FAQs we explain how our platform works and how to get started.
If you are already a partner get your questions answered at Merchant Center.
Working with Groupon
Groupon Merchants cover a broad range of industries, in categories which include:
- Food and Drink
- Health, Beauty, and Wellness
- Culture, Activities, and Events
- Home, Auto, and Local Services
- Hotels and Travel
Profit-Driven Marketing
We know how to set your business up for success. Our merchants have sold more than 1.5 billion units through our platform, and over 80% of Groupon campaigns are immediately profitable.
Quality Customers
Groupon customers are always on the lookout for new experiences, but are also deeply loyal to the places they fall in love with. They spend more at great businesses, and they recommend their favorite spots to their friends.
New Ways to Grow
Your Groupon Page connects you with your customers and boosts your online presence. It helps you to drive revenue, and online booking makes it easy to manage demand.
Whether you use the Groupon Merchant website to sign up your business, or work with a dedicated representative from our team, you’ll receive the tools you need to set your business up for success. The best part? There is no upfront cost.
We use several mediums to promote your business to our users:
- Groupon Website– We’ll set you up with your own deal page that grants you exposure to close to 50 million active Groupon users. We also link out to your business’s website and social media on your campaign page, making it easy for customers to learn more about your business even after your campaign has ended.
- Mobile Application – The Groupon mobile app has over 157 million downloads from our customers so they can access the deals they’re seeking almost instantly! In fact, Groupon is the #1 retail app on iOS and Android.
- National Media Outlets – We’re spending millions of dollars to get deals like yours in front of Groupon customers on television, radio, online video, and social advertising. This also includes additional exposure through search engine marketing (SEM), organic search (SEO), other online advertising, and email marketing.
You can find more information on the benefits of working with Groupon on our How does Groupon Work page.
Groupon Website
Your Groupon campaign page unlocks access to several million users. It also links directly to your business’s website or social media, so customers can easily learn more about you even after your campaign has ended.
Mobile Application
Groupon’s mobile app is the six most visited app in the US, and has achieved over 200 million downloads and counting. That means customers can seek out and access your deals almost immediately.
National Media Outlets
Groupon spends millions of dollars to connect you to new customers through online video, and social advertising. For additional exposure, we also invest in organic search (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), other online advertising, and email marketing.
The short answer is no. To provide the best value possible to our merchants, Groupon assumes all risk of getting your campaign up-and-running on our platform. Unlike traditional marketing strategies or tactics that can charge thousands upfront for advertising through impressions or clicks to your website, Groupon works differently.
We don’t want you to invest money into your campaign until we get customers in your door. To achieve this, we operate using a “pay-as-you-go” business model, where instead of paying to run your campaign, you pay for the results. Because you are promoting your products/services at a discounted rate, we’ll send you a check every few weeks accounting for voucher sales to help pay down this investment in your business.
Groupon can serve as a steady revenue-generating stream that puts your business in front of customers. Once a customer visits your business, the chance that they could return is high; according to one of our survey, 78% of Groupon purchasers say they are likely to return to a merchant after their first visit. In turn, when your business starts seeing results, Groupon asks for a small fee in return for the marketing of your promotion.
Because merchants are offering their products/services at a discounted rate, many are worried that once their campaign is over, customers won’t return. Although it’s true that discounts are often a driver for repeat business, we’ve found that many of our users are not driven solely by discounts. In fact, close to 50% of customers who have revisited a Groupon merchant, have done so without a discount.
That’s because we believe our merchants promote quality and unique offerings to customers, and take pride in knowing their products/services are enough to not only acquire new customers, but keep them coming back. More than 53% of users agree that they’ve discovered local, independently-owned businesses through Groupon, and more than 60% have referred these businesses to people they know, creating additional word-of-mouth buzz!
Groupon provides a unique experience for every merchant; our deals are not created using a cookie cutter approach. In many cases, we provide a dedicated representative to answer your questions and set you up with a campaign, as well as answer any additional questions you might have about how Groupon works. In other cases, you can build your campaign independently with the Groupon Campaign Manager. In ALL cases, our merchant support team is available for questions you have related to your campaign.
It’s important to note that every campaign is different—creating a marketing strategy unique to every business. Just because you see a competing business like yours, in your area, offering a particular discount, doesn’t mean your campaign will have to operate in the same manner to achieve results. We’ll work with you to create the deal that makes the most sense for your business…and your business’s bottom line.
Once you are signed up as a Groupon merchant, you’ll be granted access to your very own portal—called Merchant Center—where you’ll have clear insight into how your campaign is performing. Our insightful analytics provide you with customer demographics, geographic information of customer locations, and satisfaction results from surveys taken about your business. Additionally, we provide an itemized list of all vouchers sold, impressions your deal page is drawing, and much more, so you can keep track of how your campaign is performing at any time!
Becoming a Groupon merchant is a good idea for any business looking for fresh marketing strategies to reach a new audience of customers and boost exposure. We have marketing solutions tailored for most business types, from beauty and wellness, to things to do to food and drink, and much more.
It’s a common misconception that only failing businesses, or low-quality merchants, use Groupon as part of their marketing strategy—but that’s not how Groupon works. Just because businesses are discounting products and services, does not mean they are struggling financially. They might be looking to explore a new demographic of customers or test a new service offering, manage demand during slow periods or get rid of extra inventory, get in front of the holiday rush or just want some help with marketing their business. Additionally, our merchants are offering quality products and services that our customers love; of customers who re-visit a merchant after using a voucher, 77% of them become regular, loyal patrons.
Many well-known, thriving companies have used Groupon to promote their businesses. This list includes Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nordstrom, and Sony Electronics; as well as thousands of high-end, fine dining restaurants; big city museums and zoos; five star hotels; and Michelin-starred international eateries, to name a few.
Wondering how your business might fit into our list of existing local and international merchants? Do a quick search on the Groupon website, and see for yourself!
Whether you have run a Groupon campaign in the past or not, we’ve listened to our merchants’ feedback over the past nine years and are dedicated to providing the best experience possible for our merchants and customers alike. We recognize hesitations when it comes to working with Groupon, and are doing our best to address any questions—or concerns—about our business model and marketing strategies.
The best way to figure out if Groupon is a good fit for your business is to do some research on the Groupon Merchant website and read about the potential benefits to your business. Check out the success stories of local business merchants where they share the successes they’ve experienced working with Groupon and expanding their marketing strategies to include running a Groupon campaign.
Create a Campaign
Simply fill out the Groupon Merchant intake form with your info and you will be directed to the Groupon Campaign Manager, where you can create your own campaign instantly.
You can create your campaign with our Campaign Manager. Login your Merchant Center and click on “New Campaign”. You can create up to 5 campaigns for different services.
Groupon does not charge any upfront costs for creating and running a campaign on our site. We operate a “pay-as-you-go” model, meaning you only pay for the results, not for the listing.
Groupon will offer you a range of campaign templates to choose from, based on your business category. Once you select the template, you’ll be able to set the campaign price and discount, redemptions per voucher, and campaign image. You can also build your own campaign with our guided tool, upload your own images and set fine print details that make sense for your campaign, such as expiration date, restrictions, etc.
To create a campaign use our Campaign Manager by logging in your Merchant Center. If you aren’t a merchant yet you can sign up via our intake form.
After you have successfully submitted your campaign details via our Campaign Manager and depending on the starting date you chose the campaign can go live within 24 hours. You will be sent an email with the expected launch date and a preview of your Groupon campaign.
If you are a first time merchant don’t forget to submit your bank and tax information. We are unable to proceed with launching your campaign if we don’t have these details.
There’s a lot you can (and should) do in the lead-up to your campaign launch to get the most out of your Groupon campaign. That includes accessing the Groupon Merchant Center, training your staff, promoting the campaign, and more.
Groupon works with you when creating your campaign to set a reasonable cap on the number of vouchers you make available for purchase. This way, you won’t sell beyond your capacity and get overwhelmed by customers, which could result in a poor experience for both you and the customer. You can see the capacity that is set on each of your campaign options in Merchant Center.
We’ll also notify you once a deal option is 90% sold out, and you can reach out to our Merchant Support team at any time to change your campaign’s capacity.
Edit a Campaign
You have the ability to edit your Groupon campaign without contacting Merchant Support. To make adjustments to your campaign follow these steps:
- Login Merchant Center,
- Navigate to your campaigns tab, click on the pencil icon next to the campaign you want to edit and select “Edit Campaign.”
- Once you have saved all your changes, you can preview your campaign by clicking on the Preview button.
- If you are happy with the preview, click the “Publish” button.
- The requested changes will be reviewed by our team and will go live within 24 hours of approval. If your requests cannot be completed, we will email you with the next steps.
If you have difficulties making changes to your offer please contact our merchant service team.
Login your Merchant Center and navigate to your Campaigns page. Click the pencil icon next to the campaign you want to pause and click on “Pause Campaign”/”Unpause Campaign”.
If you have difficulties making changes to your offer please contact our merchant service team.
Redemption and Payments
Redeeming your customer’s vouchers not only gives you an accurate picture of how many customers you’ve serviced, it also prevents voucher misuse and duplicate redemptions. Additionally, it ensures you are paid for the customers you’ve serviced. If a customer calls Groupon for a refund but their voucher has already been marked “redeemed” by you or your staff, the refund will not be deducted from your payment, instead it will be absorbed by Groupon.
Additionally, after a voucher is redeemed it prompts customers to provide their valuable feedback in your Merchant Center.
You are paid for every voucher that you redeem, so please be sure you and your staff are aware of the different redemption methods.
You can redeem vouchers the following ways, via our Merchant Center or our Groupon Merchant App:
- Scanning customer vouchers on the spot using the free Groupon Merchant app on an Apple or Android device
- Manually redeem, by typing the voucher’s security code into Merchant Center (click “Redeem” at the top of the page and type the code into the resulting text field)
- Redeem vouchers individually or multiple vouchers at once. Enter either a single voucher code or multiple codes in Merchant Center, separated by a comma. Once the voucher code is recognized you will be able to click the green “Redeem” button.
For further explanation see this video.
If you have problems redeeming a voucher please check the following options:
Groupon Voucher “Not Found”
If a voucher is returning a “Not Found” error, you may be in the wrong Merchant Center account. This can happen if you have multiple accounts with Groupon (for example if you’ve been featured in different countries or have multiple businesses). You can access your other accounts by clicking on Change Account.
If you are still experiencing issues, please contact our merchant service team.
Groupon Voucher “Rejected”
If a voucher’s status reads “rejected”, it means that the customer attempted to purchase the deal—but the payment did not go through. If the payment method fails, it will trigger a line item in the customer list, however, a valid voucher was never actually issued.
Any voucher marked “rejected” is not valid and should not be redeemed.
Always validate a voucher at the time of scheduling, and be sure to redeem each voucher at the time of use to ensure all customers have made valid purchases.
Groupon Voucher “Pending”
If a voucher's status reads “pending”, it typically means that the payment hasn't gone through yet. Once the payment is cleared, you should be able to redeem the voucher.
Redeemed by Mistake
If a voucher was redeemed by mistake, we are unfortunately unable to "unredeem" this voucher. If the customer still needs to be refunded for this voucher, you can either contact Groupon Customer Support and request a refund on behalf of the customer, or provide the customer with proof stating that the voucher should be eligible for a refund that they can give to Customer Support.
Pay on Redemption Merchants: Any payment made for this voucher will be deducted from your payment the next time you redeem a voucher for the same offer.
Customer Forgot Voucher
If the customer forgets to bring a voucher, presents an incorrect printout, or is unable to pull up their redemption code, you can search for the customer’s name in your Merchant Center account.
If, however, the customer presents a voucher that has been refunded, we will be unable to process payment for that voucher.
You’ll be paid by Groupon on a bi-monthly basis and compensated for the vouchers that have been marked as used/redeemed in the weeks leading up to the payment.
For example, on the 16th of every month, you will be paid for all of the vouchers you marked as redeemed from the 1st through 15th of that month, less any refunds incurred.
If your payment due date happens to fall within the last 5 business days of the month, the processing date will change to the first of the next month (or the following business day).
In the Payments section in your Merchant Center, you can view all your payments to date, their status, and the total payment. For each payment, you will see the total number of vouchers sold and your take per option. You can download a detailed payment breakdown that includes specific information about each payment.
For further information please see this video.
We may issue refunds to customers for a number of reasons, including special circumstances on a case-by-case basis and customer complaints that we deemed reasonable upon review. We will always update the status of your vouchers in your Merchant Center account, so please check that vouchers are valid before servicing and redeeming them.
If you have already received payment for a redeemed voucher that was subsequently refunded, your share of the voucher’s value will be deducted from your next payment.
If you would like a customer to receive a refund from Groupon:
- Provide the customer with written confirmation of your request
- Have the customer request a refund by contacting Customer Support through their Groupon account
If the customer is unable to contact Customer Support themselves, please send a request to us with the following:
- The reason for requesting a refund
- The customer's full name
- The voucher code
Merchant Tools
To reset your password, visit the Merchant Center. On the login screen, click “Forgot your password?” Enter the email address associated with your Merchant Center and click Reset. You will receive an email containing a link to reset your password.
Groupon prioritizes your ability to receive valuable feedback from your customers and its ability to help you build on your business. Within a week of a voucher being redeemed, we will prompt customers with an optional feedback survey. Their responses will be populated in your Merchant Center Feedback page, and we’ll display a selection of your most recent customer comments on our website.
You will be able to view the ratings as well as any comments that your customers leave for you in your Merchant Center account. Here, you can choose to respond to customers by thanking them for their feedback or sharing your contact details if they have raised any issues that require a follow up.
Go Beyond Deals. Become a Destination.
Groupon Merchant is your platform for becoming someone’s favorite place. Let’s work together to make you a destination.
